In the piano roll, when CCs from multiple channels are displayed in the same lane, some of the CCs disappear. In addition, when the CCs are colored by channel, the colors of some CCs get mixed up. The following GIF is a simple example using 2 channels (more channels lead to even worse mix-ups):

Handling of multichannel/multitrack MIDI in Reaper is a mess and will require some serious rework. With the involvement of some people who are actually using such multichannel features day in day out in real-world scenarios. In it's current state multichannel editing is a very half-assed attempt; it's evident that it was implemented by a developer who did not have much clue how these features will be used in real-world scenarios... So multichannel editing might have most of the necessary features "on paper", but they're buggy and the workflow just sucks... again, that dev could not know what a good workflow was, because he's obviously not using such functionality himself. The only way to solve this is with the help from some MIDI composers who are actually using the features in anger.

The recent v5.25 has almost - but not quite - squashed this bug dead: CCs of multiple channels can now be displayed at the same position, as the pretty colors of the following screenshot demonstrates:

There is just one remaining problem: the CC display is ordered by channel, so that CCs in a higher channel are always drawn in front of CCs in lower channels. Shorter (lower-valued) CCs are therefore concealed by longer (high-valued) CCs, if the longer CCs are in a higher channel:

It would be better if CCs - as is already the case for Velocities - are ordered by length (value) first, so that shorter CCs are always drawn in front. All CCs would therefore be easily visible to the user.

The recent v5.25 has almost - but not quite - squashed this bug dead: CCs of multiple channels can now be displayed at the same position, as the pretty colors of the following screenshot demonstrates:

There is just one remaining problem: the CC display is ordered by channel, so that CCs in a higher channel are always drawn in front of CCs in lower channels. Shorter (lower-valued) CCs are therefore concealed by longer (high-valued) CCs, if the longer CCs are in a higher channel:

It would be better if CCs - as is already the case for Velocities - are ordered by length (value) first, so that shorter CCs are always drawn in front. All CCs would therefore be easily visible to the user.

I'd actually prefer the current active channel to be displayed on top.

I would be happy with an option to "Display active channel in front".

Alternatively, what about using the channel dropdown menu at the bottom right to switch between the display options?

* When the menu is set to "All channels", then shorter CCs are drawn in front. I.e., the order of precedence is CC value -> Active channel -> Channel number (if the values of two CCs are exactly the same).

* When the menu is set to a specific channel, then the order of precedence is Active channel -> CC value -> Channel number.

If a user wishes to focus even more on the current active channel, he/she can activate the filter checkbox, so that only the active channel is displayed.

Some ordering is required when displaying data that occupies the same time position. I believe there is no perfect solution that will always result in all simultaneous multichannel data being visible at once. Potential changes would add complexity without obviously "fixing" the issue, so I would rate this as a low priority issue. As you say, you can use the MIDI filter to isolate individual channels if you need to edit data that would otherwise be hidden behind data from other channels.

I am very disappointed that this bug has been demoted to low priority. Personally I find REAPER's buggy multi-channel features to be the biggest impediment to smooth MIDI editing in the piano roll.

Please do not disregard a bug simply because a perfect solution isn't right-in-front-of-your-nose obvious. Instead, this is precisely when the devs - with users' input - should put their heads together to find a proper, satisfying solution. (Would a bug in the notation editor be disregarded simply because a perfect solution isn't obvious? Channels in the piano roll are just as important as voices in the notation editor!)

* Using the MIDI filter to isolate an individual channel would mean that the user loses all context of the other channels.

* It is important to display all MIDI information from all channels as clearly as possible. Shorter events should therefore be placed in front. (Except when the user is editing a specific channel, in which case the active channel goes in front.)

Is that the same as simply changing the channel from the lower right drop down menu? Because that's what I was doing and it wasn't working. Maybe I goofed? Or is my way just viewing vs changing to active?

hi, is there a way to have the selected event's midi channel shown (and being able to edit it) somewhere in the midi editor?

what i have in mind is something simple like in Cubase key editor, where you can always see it and click on it to edit in the top bar:

You can't have it like that unfortunately. You can see the event's channel in Event Properties.

The MIDI Inspector will show you the channel as well as other info, and if you click on the yellow text, you can edit the channel:

The MIDI Inspector improves on REAPER's native Properties windows in several ways:
* The GUI is continuously updated and does not interfere with MIDI editing.
* If multiple events are selected, value ranges are shown.
* Note, CC and take information are all shown simultaneously.
* Note and CC positions can be displayed in any of REAPER's time formats.
* The GUI can be docked.

is there a way to force the entire track (or midi item too) to play on one specific midi channel, regardless of the actual midi channel that's been recorded?

Sure, you can use a JSFX (such as MIDI Tool II) to force all MIDI into a specific channel, or if you are sending the MIDI to another track, you can select to send all MIDI to one specific channel instead of the original channels.

Sure, you can use a JSFX (such as MIDI Tool II) to force all MIDI into a specific channel, or if you are sending the MIDI to another track, you can select to send all MIDI to one specific channel instead of the original channels.

My eyes are not bad either, it works just fine. There's no setting governing this AFAIK.

Right but I literally do exactly what you did, and when I change the dropdown to say, Channel 1, or 2, it TOGGLES between then, doesn't show them overlayed like yours.

That's what I mean, that's what I cannot do. How do you do that? Everytime I change the dropdown to channel X, it ONLY shows X's CC data. No combined. Except of course when ALL channels is selected. I can make a vid if you would like, I'm not trying to be crazy Sorry.

(Edit: Oh, um, maybe I had that filter checkbox selected this whole time, next to dropdown. Maybe) Sorry! Working now